Draft:Esete Sutinen

Esete Sutinen is an Ethiopian-Finnish dance artist who has performed in works directed by several different choreographers and directors. She works extensively as a dancer and performer in various intersections of dance, theatre, performance, installation, opera and performing arts. She graduated with a Master's degree in Dance from Uniarts Helsinki’s The Theatre Academy in 2005.

Esete Sutinen is known as a skilled dancer and impressive performer. She has worked as a performer in over 70 premieres under the direction, for example of Alpo Aaltokoski, Sonya Lindfors, Virva Talonen, Milla Koistinen, Marjo Kuusela, Ervi Sirén, Tommi Kitti, Petri Kekoni and Pauliina Feodoroff. She has awarded with the Finnish Cultural Foundation's personal artist grants 2012-2014., the Arts Promote Center Finland three-year artist grant 2016-2018 and one-year artist grant 2021 and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation's artist grant 2022

Internationally, Esete Sutinen is remembered for her work Matriarchy, premiered at the Venice Biennale (2022) by the Sámi artist and activist Pauliina Feodoroff.

Sutinen started her choreographic work in 2017 together with four other freelance artists and their collaboration created a five-part contemporary dance piece called Maps of Fear and Empathy. The collaboration was presented in the Kajaani Art Museum and the stage of Generaattori in Routa Company. The starting point of this performance was to think about what fear and empathy are at this time and how they could be dealt with in the context of performance art. Her most recent group work, Rest as a ... in 2023, dealt with rest as a collective event between audience-experiencers and performers. The installation-like performance event created a space where idleness, wasteful use of time and the intrinsic value of resting were brought to the fore. The work sought to bring out the meaning and specialness of practicing everyday things together and the healing power hidden in them. In her choreographic work Sutinen is fascinated by the articulation of corporeality, the different aspects of freedom and rest and the power of fragility and empathy.